flowers, families and photos at butterbee farm!

I love when getting to know new friends and families leads to learning about places I've never been and how small the world really is... :)

I first met Kobi and his wife Dafna (and their twins!) back in November, at Play Cafe in Hampden. We bonded over our mutual sleeplessness (my son was born last April, and was only about 7 months at the time and they had 2 month old twins) and how many beautiful and unique neighborhoods Baltimore has within such close proximity. Kobi and Dafna were both born in Israel and love connecting Jewish families with young babies and bonding over food, coffee and good conversation. When Kobi mentioned Ahava Baby's final family event taking place at a local flower farm with new families and their need for a photographer to capture the families at the event, it was a no-brainer... YES, PLEASE!

Fast forward to mid-June when I arrived at Butterbee Farm for the first time and met Laura Beth, the owner and floral farmer extraordinaire! I knew of the farm from working with one of my favorite florists in Baltimore City, Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers, but I had never ventured out to see it or meet Laura Beth until now.

I love her story - she studied flute in college and still plays (hi! me too... well, not as often as I'd like these days, but I grew up playing the flute and my mom still teaches it!); we instantly connected over that and then I learned she always wanted to know more about farming and started in 2013 on a 13th of an acre (13 happens to be my lucky number...!) on land in Reservoir Hill. Butterbee Farm grows all of their flowers and herbs "beyond organically"- which means they don't use any harmful pesticides, not even ones that are certified organic.

Butterbee Farm has a ton of upcoming events (I secretly would love to attend all of them, haha) to boost your floral knowledge, try your hand at floral crown making and even some mornings where volunteers are encouraged to help out! They offer DIY flowers for bridal parties, provide bulk flowers for events and have lots of varieties of mint (too many for me to name!) but I learned of how awesome mountain mint smells and what the chamomile flower looks like during my short time at the farm.

I could go on and on, but I'll just say that my time with the Ahava Baby crew was so much fun in getting to know so many different mini-farmers-in-training :) and Butterbee Farm is a feast for the senses and a rejuvenating, peaceful place that I can't wait to come back to again! Thank you for the opportunity, Kobi + Ahava Baby and thank you to Laura Beth, for being such a friendly and gracious host!